The American writer, James Baldwin was born one hundred years ago today. He was by any stretch of the imagination, one of the most radical and important voices of the 20th century. He was the outspoken grandson of a slave, who bore witness to the consequences of American racial strife. He was an opinionated, critical, blunt, and provocative man, at a time when that was considered dangerous. But it was as an author, that he took the greater risks, that no other commercial writer at the time was taking, that could so easily have destroyed his career. And Giovanni’s Room was his greatest risk.